The invention relates to a speed dialing method for a telephone unit provided with a display unit and a program-controlled processor unit. A telephone unit is here taken as meaning all telephone applications, and in particular mobile telephones and car radiophones.
Speed dialing to facilitate the use of telephones has been known for a long time, especially where the caller has to dial long or/and frequently repeated telephone numbers. For instance, in usual home telephones the repetition of the number last dialed is implemented by actuating a particular function button or key.
On the other hand, the storage of speed dialing numbers in a storage register or memory is also known, an identification code being then added to the memory location of the telephone number. The speed dialing number desired by the caller (user) is selected by means of the identification code. In certain cases, such speed dialing is called short code dialing. This dialing is usually assisted by a particular short code dialing register, e.g. in printed form. Recently, such a print out has been replaced by a telephone display, which enables one to use an alphanumerical character series in addition to the identification code or instead of it. The character series facilitates the identification and dialing of the desired telephone number. Moreover, for instance in mobile telephones, particular service buttons or keys of a keyboard are used for scanning the speed dialing register, whereby the register can be checked on the display, one telephone number at a time. This is an advantage for the caller for instance when he is driving a car, since no special attention has to be paid to the number or character buttons or keys. The scanning also replaces exact memorizing of the selected speed dialing codes. In other words, it acts as a "telephone diary" for the speed dialing operation. However, the scanning may become onerous if the register is large, and furthermore, the programming of the speed dialing operations may be difficult for the caller. The invention aims at a simplification of speed dialing operations and at an enhanced service reliability.